CCM

...or to give it its full title University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. I was down on the main campus this morning for a class. Since it is a music class, I thought it was appropriate to take a shot of CCM - one of the leading Music Conservatories in the country. In the class this morning we were listening to parts of a few Haydn Symphonies. Haydn is regarded as the Father of the Symphony and he wrote 106 of them! One of the symphonies we listened to this morning is known as the Farewell Symphony and has an interesting story behind it. Haydn was employed at the court of Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy, where he composed music and conducted the court orchestra. During their 'season' at the court, the musicians lived there, but their families had to live elsewhere in the town of Eisenstadt. Naturally, by the end of the 'season' the musicians would be eager to return to their families. One year, the Prince kept them on longer than usual and so Haydn, who had quite a sense of humor decided to drop a 'hint' to his patron. In the last movement of this Symphony ( his 45th), during the final adagio, each musician stopped playing, snuffed out the candle on his music stand, and left in turn, so that at the end, there were just two muted violins left (played by Haydn himself and the concertmaster. Esterházy took the hint: the musicians were allowed to return to their families the next day!